It’s sweltering out here, mate

Mark Pennington, 52, is a driller at Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit, Australia’s largest open-pit gold mine. He talks about death and swimming with sharks

Mark Pennington’s job is dangerous but he earns $180,000 a year (£118K) (Federico Bonfanti)

I get up at twenty past four. I tend to wake before the alarm goes, so I flick
it off so as not to wake my missus. Breakfast is tea and toast with jam and
Vegemite, then I’m off.

The drive to work is 45km east across the bush. It’s in the heart of Western
Australia’s goldfields and most days there are no kangaroos, just the rising
sun and a lot of traffic coming the other way — mainly night-shift blokes
heading home from my pit in Kalgoorlie.

The pit is called Super Pit, and it’s Australia’s largest open-pit mine. I’m
there at 5.45 and I tag in at the gatehouse, then change. I talk to my cross
mate coming off the night shift. We each operate 10-hour shifts, with a
four-hour break between them, and this is our only chance to discuss where
we’re at.